Thursday, March 27, 2014

The setting is a mostly empty,
114-year-old building that once housed a fabric mill known as the
Imperial Cotton Company in the industrial north end of Hamilton, Ont.
On one of the upper floors, part of the vast space has been
transformed into a grimy old gymnasium, where a boxing ring is
ensconced in plumes of smoke. Inside the ring, two women are duking
things out as throngs of beer-swilling, fedora-wearing men cheer them
on.

If it all looks like a moment plucked
from some bygone era, that's because it is.

Welcome to Bomb Girls – The Movie,
a two-hour production that continues – and wraps up – the
storyline of the once-popular Canadian TV series.

Originally designed as a six-episode
drama in 2012, Bomb Girls ended up growing to 18 episodes that
continued into a second season. The series revolved around a core
group of four women – played by Meg Tilly, Jodi Balfour, Ali
Liebert and Charlotte Hegele – who worked in a Canadian munitions
factory during the Second World War.

The series attracted a dedicated
following of fans who cried foul when Global cancelled the show last
year. Protests eventually led the network to greenlight a TV-movie to
wrap up the saga.

This particular day of filming finds
the tomboyish Betty McRae (Liebert) as one of the two females in the
boxing ring. When the stylish Gladys Witham (Balfour) makes an
appearance in the crowd and spots Betty, it causes a bit of a
distraction, in more ways than one.

For Balfour, the chance to revive the
role of Gladys was one she eagerly awaited.

“It feels great,” she says during a
break. “We're obviously dealing with a bunch of new subject matter,
but it still feels like coming back to familiar territory. There's an
element of comfort in coming 'home' and there's a sense of community
to the show, which is part of what I love so much about it.”

Born and raised in South Africa,
Balfour graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2009 before she
and her family moved to B.C. Her list of credits includes various TV
projects, including a role this season in CBC's political
comedy-drama, The Best Laid Plans. Nevertheless, Balfour is
still best known for her work as Gladys.

“She's kind of the role of a
lifetime, particularly in the way they keep writing her and
developing her,” Balfour says. “Every year, I get to tackle a
real sense of growth in her. She has so many colours I get to play
with – like vulnerability and fear and sensitivity and insecurity.
And then I also get to play with a sense of courage. It's a really
cool range of things that I get to play, so I count myself lucky.”

Written by Donald Martin and directed
by Jerry Ciccoritti, Bomb Girls: Facing The Enemy picks up the
storyline six months after the events at the conclusion of the
series. There have been changes in all of the women's lives. In some
cases, the changes are significant.

“It's bit of a tricky time for
Gladys,” Balfour explains. “She is longing to see her best
friend. And, you know, the central theme of Gladys' life is this
inescapable loneliness that she deals with a lot of the time.”

While the primary purpose of Bomb
Girls: Facing The Enemy is to tie up loose ends from the series, it
also takes the show's plot a bit further. And that thrilled Balfour
and her castmates.

“We were obviously all really sad
when the show was cancelled but very aware of how lucky we are to get
to do this,” Balfour points out. “I think many shows see
themselves being cancelled and don't get this opportunity.

“It not only serves us an opportunity
to tell the story some more, but also serves us an opportunity to get
a little bit of closure, for us as well as for the audience. It's a
nice opportunity to get to see everyone one more time.”

Bomb Girls: Facing The Enemy – Global – March 27

(A portion of this story was published in Channel Guide Magazine - April 2014.)

Saturday, March 01, 2014

Enrico Colantoni Straddles The Fence Between Comedy And Drama In "Remedy"

By Eric Kohanik

Enrico Colantoni admits he sometimes
feels out of place when it comes to his career.

“I am still a man without a home,”
the 51-year-old actor half-jokes inside his dressing-room trailer in
downtown Toronto. “I have kids in Los Angeles. I have parents in
Italy. But right now, there's nothing more rewarding than feeling
appreciated by the people that I was born into. I was born in Canada.
There's something huge about that. I don't think I would have done it
any differently.”

Born in Toronto, Colantoni graduated
from the Yale School of Drama in the U.S. and carved out a career in
American television, from such comedies as Hope & Gloria
and Just Shoot Me! to dramas including Veronica Mars andPerson of Interest. But it was his five-year stint back in
Canada, as tactical-police-squad sergeant Greg Parker on CTV's
Flashpoint, that added another twist.

“Parker was fantastic. He was
wonderful to play,” Colantoni recalls. “But after leaving that
show, all I yearned for was something a little lighter.”

Longing for stuff on the other side of
the fence isn't new for Colantoni. “I like exactly what I'm not
doing in the moment,” he concedes. “A day didn't go by on Just
Shoot Me! where I wouldn't go, 'I want to do something dramatic,
single camera.' The good thing is I always get what I ask for.”

Colantoni figures he has found a good
compromise in a new Global series called Remedy.
The show revolves around fictional Bethune General Hospital,
where the adventures of those interacting on the upper floors of the
hospital occasionally intersect with the misadventures that occur in
the basement of the building. Colantoni tops the ensemble as Dr.
Allen Conner, the chief of staff who spends most days on the upper
decks of Bethune General. At the opposite end is Frank Kanaskie
(Patrick McKenna), who works in the basement as the supervisor of
transport and housekeeping.

“There's a lot of an Upstairs,
Downstairs dynamic to this show,” Colantoni says. “That's the
tone of the show when those two worlds meet. Allen is constantly
battling two worlds. I think that's what's going to set it apart from
other medical dramas.”

The interactions often have comical
consequences, which appealed to Colantoni. “The biggest reason I
wanted to do it, from an acting perspective, is that there is comedy
in it,” he explains. “It really is a hybrid. It's not the comedy
of Just Shoot Me! It's not the drama of Flashpoint.
It's right in the middle.

“There's an undertow to this show
that makes me laugh. It's either built in with the dynamic of the
relationship of the family members or, sometimes, it's just blatant
comedy. That's what intrigued me.” Colantoni is also tackling
other chores on Remedy; he is directing the sixth episode.

“To be able to see something from
that perspective, it turns the light bulb back on,” Colantoni says.
“Doors that were closed to me at one time are now open for me on
this show. That just makes me feel like I'm welcome, that my opinions
have value, that I have a stake in it. It's the pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow.

“That's why I came back to Canada.
I've gotten to play historic figures, heroic figures and, now, I'm
allowed to direct an episode of a television show in its first season
– in its first season! – which is unheard of and generous
beyond everything I've ever experienced. That's what I love about
being home.

“I'm Canadian again. I'm here. I want
to stay,” Colantoni says, and then adds with a smile, “unless
somebody wants me back in the States.”

Canada Gets Set To Roll Out Red Carpets For The Junos And The "Screenies"

By Eric Kohanik

Down in Hollywood, the Oscars will get
the usual lion's share of attention when they hit the tube on March
2. North of the border, though, the lights are shining on two
Canadian spectacles striving to stake out their own claims on the
airwaves.

The 2014 Canadian Screen Awards
return to CBC on March 9. Nestled inside Toronto's Sony
Centre for the Performing Arts, the awards are still in their
relative infancy, this being only their second foray into the densely
populated arena of televised award shows.

Already nicknamed the “Screenies”
around Canadian industry circles, the Canadian Screen Awards were
born last year, after the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
merged its existing prizes for Canadian movies (the Genie Awards,
launched in 1980) with the accolades handed out for English-language
Canadian television (the Gemini Awards, launched in 1986). The merger
was accentuated by the launch of Canadian Screen Week, an annual
celebration leading up to the award show.

Veteran actor/comedian Martin Short is
back to host the CSAs again this year, thanks in part to his
energy-filled turn at the helm of last year's inaugural broadcast.

The 2014 Juno Awards
are set to grab their own chunk of the Canadian TV spotlight. This
year's awards return to CTV on March 30. This time
around, the setting is Winnipeg.

Juno Week celebrations will include
another Juno Cup celebrity-hockey game, a two-day JunoFest music
showcase and several other attractions. Capping off the week, of
course, is the award ceremony at Winnipeg's MTS Centre.

In addition to saluting the year's top
Canadian music achievements, the show will pay tribute to this year's
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees: Blair Thornton, Fred Turner,
Randy Bachman and Robin Bachman, better known for many years as
Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

While the Junos and the “Screenies”
likely won't come close to the glitz and worldwide attention of
Hollywood's biggest night of the year, that doesn't matter. Canadian
viewers can expect both award shows to pack a unique punch of their
own.